Patrick Madrid is Evil

The way you can tell is that, while serving the Church, he actually wants to feed his family too. Anybody who tries to do something for the Church and seeks to get remuneration for the fruits of their labor is just a huckster. This is one of the more common memes one hears from the Truly True spectrum of Reactionary Catholicism. And one of its most ardent proponents is self-declared Expert on the Problem of Protestant Converts, Janice Kraus. Madrid isn’t a convert, of course. But he helps make converts and he is dangerously open to the idea that converts–especially Evangelical converts–are a good thing, if you please, and not the plague and scourge that Kraus believes them to be. Because of that, there is only one rational conclusion: he’s given his life to Catholic evangelization for no other purpose than filthy lucre. Indeed, Janice declares Madrid guilty of nothing less than simony.

Of course, it goes without saying that such judgments do not apply to Janice Kraus. Not long ago, she was rebuking the awful awful converts at the Siena Institute with the lofty intelligence that, unlike the unwashed herd of Evangelical half-breed converts, “I do theology for a living”. Of course, it’s not clear just how much theology get “done” by an Administrative Assistant for the NCEA, but I’ll take her word for it that she “does” theology “for a living.” In my country, “for a living” means “I get paid to do theology”. And yet, by some miracle that perhaps comes with having your card punched as a a “‘cultural Catholic.’ In the best sense of the word” it is *not* simony when Janice Kraus gets paid to “do” whatever it is she does about theology. That’s merely just recompense for the fruit of her labor.

To sum up:

Pat Madrid tries to serve the Church and feed his family? He is a bad simoniac huckster (cuz, you know, talking about the faith is equal to selling the sacraments, as every qualified person who “does theology for a living” knows).

Janice Kraus tries to serve the Church and feed herself? She is (you can ask her yourself) a Catholic in the best sense of the word.

I consulted Pat’s blog for his views on Janice but he has never written a word against her. Too busy serving the Church and trying to feed his family to spend time backbiting a sister in Christ, I guess.